Category: Food Hacks

I don’t know if I ever told you I used to work in a gourmet restaurant. It was the best school I had in cooking, pairing and serving food. It was the first time in my life I tasted mozzarella (not at all what I expected), carpaccio, piccata, lobster, elk and so, so many other things. It was my self-discovery journey, almost an initiation ritual which channeled and reinforced my love of food and cooking. And I learned a thing or two along the way!
My boss, the chef and proud owner, was a Texas music teacher and avid jazz lover. His wife, who became one of my dearest friends, was a Polish university professor of English. They felt in love and opened a restaurant in the heart of Montana. I was 21 at that time, new to the US and looking to discover and learn as much as I could. I ended up in the restaurant by pure chance, for a dishwasher job. My boss didn’t want to hire me at first, because he didn’t like girls in the kitchen (more on that later)…especially a very skinny creature (oh boy, those were the days!) with a shaved head, blue painted nails and huge earrings (21, I told you). He thought there’s no way in hell I could manage. But I asked for a chance and I did manage: I put in place a system and became the best damn dishwasher! Once you’ve done dishes for 150 people one evening, you don’t sweat the small stuff anymore. I worked my way to different other jobs in the kitchen and outside it and I was soon to understand why my boss was weary of girls in the kitchen. More precisely when I tried to work behind the line, which is at the stoves. The heat, the constant sweating, the heavy lifting, the burns and the clock-work routine were just too much for me. The silly feminist I was then revolted, but the wiser 31 years old woman fully understands now. Guys, kitchen work is freaking tough! There are not a lot of women who can take the physical stuff, my hat’s off to those who can!
But along with stuffing my face with all the goodies I could get my hands on, I also observed the restaurant business. Fascinating stuff! I learned the very precious lesson of running my home kitchen like a professional one. Think about it: the main purpose of restaurants is to make money and serve good food, keeping lots people happy. Well, one approach to making money is, strangely enough, not wasting away money. Which I bet you can relate to when it comes to managing your own stuff at home. So, to summarize: not wasting money and making delicious food in a limited amount of time. Here’s what I learned; you can do this too, in your own kitchen.

Take any magazine and flip through it: you’ll see that, 9 out of 10 times, you’ll find at least one reference to superfoods. These miraculous things that give you glowy skin, perfect hair, good energy, feed your brain, burn your fat, keep you young, make you smart(er) and,eventually, make you immortal. Enter the SUPERFOODS. Starting with the grapefruit (first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, as grandmas all over the world say), passing through broccoli and avocado and finally ending (?) with cauliflower. Btw, dear cauliflower pushers, there’s not such thing as “cauliflower steak”. Look it up, “steak” is, by definition, a piece of meat. While eating these foods is not bad at all, don’t buy into the lie that is propagated through every channel available. These are not the superheroes you need to look for. The real superheroes in your kitchen are pretty basic stuff, faithful staples, that come to rescue whenever you’re in trouble. You know them all too well! Read More

Food hacks is back!!! I’m thrilled to share this new episode about all the crap we shouldn’t be buying…let alone eating. Hope you enjoy!

People ask me the strangest questions and most of the times I can come up with a cheeky answer in a heart beat. Other-times, I’m dumbstruck and I blankly stare at them like cat stares at a calendar (literal translation of a Romanian saying)(because cats can’t read calendars and they just staaaaare). Most of these questions are food-related: where did you buy the……….. -insert one of the following: dough for a tart, hummus, pesto, croquettes, etc., etc., etc.. My bewilderment comes from the fact that I don’t really grasp the question: I mean, why would I buy such stuff? And then enlightenment: people ARE actually buying these things…but, of course, they shouldn’t.

So here’s a non-exhaustive list of crap people buy. I’m not including all the frozen meals, powder soups, bullions, silly desserts- I hope we’re well past that already. Let’s focus on the very practical side of things: ingredients, money and time. I’m gonna do an analysis of ingredients, price, time & effort involved and the recipes to make these at home. The prices come from various supermarkets in Brussels, but my (educated) guess is that these proportions apply pretty much wherever you are.

I was never pasta-crazy, maybe because in my family we don’t do pasta. And if we do, we do it very badly. I would never order it in a resto (come on, for sure they have something better) and I very rarely suggest making pasta at home. BUT my man used to live in Italy and he is the definition of a pasta lover.

Over the years I learned how to become friends with it. I learned not to boil it to a mush, I learned not to drench it in Parmesan and garlic (well…) and I learned that even I have a favorite pasta dish (butter, sour-cream, smoked salmon, parsley & black pepper, in case anyone’s wondering). But today’s story is not really about pasta, it’s about making the best with what you have.

Today I’m starting a new series called Food Hacks because when we’re aiming at simplifying our lives, we need to learn some optimization techniques. These are some of the things I do to keep a smooth flow of life, to avoid unnecessary shopping trips, to save time and money, too. To become the queen of zen (don’t ask how far along the way I’ve got on this one).

So I decided to talk about chicken, one of the most wonderful birds that have walked this earth. Truth is, one chicken goes a long way; I’ve been brought up in a tradition that celebrates the creative usage of every bit & piece. I know the best meat is on the bone (only emperors eat this, as per my grandpa), I know the carcass is the best thing to make soup of and I know the (roasted) butt of the chicken is absolutely the ambrosia of gods- by the way, when was the last time anyone had a chicken butt?

Leftovers are probably the best thing that can happen to us. While most people are scared of leftovers, I always plan for some when cooking. And, most of the times, I like to give them a new life.

The leftover part of these lunch-boxes are the bits of chicken and the baked potato. It took me about 10 minutes to transform the chicken and it was totally worth it. I chopped and fried a box of brown champignons in a little bit of butter, just added some garlic, thyme, salt & pepper. I dumped in the chicken pieces and 2 full spoons of sour cream (like all Eastern Europeans, I know sour cream is amazing in almost any dish). And that was it, some chopped parsley to top! Next to it a half baked potato with a lump of blue cheese and green salad with cherry tomatoes, pepper, feta cheese and green onions. Don’t be afraid of the green onion at the office, the parsley takes away the oniony breath. Yep, that’s the trick of today.

After many years of packing and enjoying my own lunches, I’ve learned a thing or two about the art of the perfect lunch box. The secret? Simply enough: killing two birds with one stone…which translates into cooking two meals in one go! Because time is never enough (am I the only one out there with this problem?!?).

What did I put in here? Leftover burgers from the eve before, 2 baked potatoes that I threw in the oven while making a stew (more on that soon)- added some goat cheese and few chunks of blue cheese on top. These will melt in the office microwave and become the BEST topping for the above potatoes. Next to all this, an avocado salsa, which literally took me 3 minutes to assemble in the morning.

Not the most summery meal, I’ll give you that, but when you live in Belgium, you don’t really get many summery meals…